NAVY LEAGUE NEWS
The Navy League launched a new campaign March 26 on Capitol Hill aimed at rallying support for
the Navy-Marine Corps team and increasing awareness
about what the strain of underfunding and overexten-sion will mean for the Department of the Navy in the
years ahead.

The 16-month “America’s Strength: Investing in the
Navy-Marine Corps Team” grassroots effort combines
congressional, community and industry outreach with
media and advertising visibility. It also will urge
Congress to act now to avoid long-term detrimental
effects on U.S. defense, and the nation’s economy and
position as a world leader, by increasing projected
funding levels to better meet the Department of the
Navy’s current and future needs.

The high-profile launch featured Navy League
National President James H. Offutt and campaign chair
Sheila M. McNeill, past Navy League national president and current president of the Camden Partnership
in St. Marys, Ga. They were joined by a group of congressmen and maritime industry, small business and
humanitarian aid organization representatives.

The common theme during the campaign’s introduc-tion was that a national message like that of “America’sStrength” is vital, as Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., notedduring his remarks, “in terms of making sure peopleunderstand what’s at stake, that if we don’t just notmaintain but also meet the challenges by growing theshipbuilding account, we’re putting a whole variety ofimportant priorities of this country at risk.”Courtney is a member of the House Armed Servicesseapower and projection forces and the military readi-ness subcommittees, and co-chair of the CongressionalShipbuilding Caucus. Other members of the congres-sional contingent included Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va.,who co-chairs the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucuswith Courtney and serves on the House ArmedServices readiness and seapower and projection forcessubcommittees; Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., chairmanof the House Armed Services seapower and projectionforces subcommittee; and House Armed ServicesCommittee member Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala.

The work of spreading the word about just what isat stake if these issues are not addressed to local com-munities, and areas of the country where there may belittle or no Navy and Marine Corps presence, willdepend on the combined strength of the Navy League’s240 councils. The “America’s Strength” campaign willbe rolled out to council representatives attending theNavy League National Convention in Tampa, Fla., dur-ing a June 19 training session from 4-5 p.m.“I’m personally making calls to every region presi-dent to call all the area presidents, because it’s so criti-cal to get them there that afternoon to be trained onthis program,” McNeill told Seapower. “It’s what we’reall about; it’s the epitome of what the Navy League isall about. It’s strong and it’s compelling and it’sprovocative. We’ll need to make big, big things happenand we’ll be successful if we can get everyone workingwith us in the Navy League.”“America’s Strength” came together after a group ofabout 100 retired Navy admirals and Marine generalsissued an open letter to Congress in November stating:“We urge Congress to provide the full funding theDepartment of the Navy needs for ships and aircraft,personnel, maintenance, training and operations. …“We are concerned that if the Department of the Navyis required to continue to respond to crisis after crisiswithout the funding needed to build new ships, repairold equipment and provide routine maintenance to exist-ing equipment, the nation risks permanent damage toour national defense and negative impacts on the domes-tic and international economies that rely on the safetyand security that U.S. sea power provides.”The Navy League was approached to lend a handbecause the authors felt the organization had the grass-roots network to be able to make this a truly nationalcampaign.“They came to us and said, ‘You have the people whoare already out in the field, who already know the com-munities, who are already active, who already care aboutthis. Could you help us with our concerns?’” said SaraFuentes, staff vice president for Government Operations& Administration, who is heading up the campaign atNavy League National Headquarters. “So we said, ‘Yes,we can do it, this is something that our membershipwould like, it’s something that they really believe in andit’s something that we can get a lot done with.’ Theycame to us, so we have to answer their call.”

Reach will be a key for the campaign, and part of the
challenge is getting people to realize how much the
Navy and Marine Corps does for the national security